Because the existing railway line (the Fréjus tunnel built in 1871) does not meet current international safety standards.
Furthermore, the historic line is not competitive for freight transport and therefore does not encourage trade operators to prefer rail to road transport: excessive gradients and the sinuosity of the route limit the speed and capacity of trains.
With a competitive connection, most traffic could be moved from road to rail, with considerable economic benefits (thanks to the Mont Cenis base tunnel, freight costs would be reduced by 40%) and major benefits for the environment.

The Lyon-Turin project is part of the infrastructural networks promoted by the EU that envisages base tunnels.
Furthermore, to adapt the Fréjus tunnel to international standards would require the excavation of a second tube (another tunnel), with a cost of almost 2 billion euros and a total wait of 15 years to allow for the decision-making and legislative process and the subsequent work. Even then, this would not resolve the problem of the gradients of the line, which require greater energy expenditure.
Completing the base tunnel for the cross-border section involves a financial commitment for Italy of 2.9 billion euros, of which 2.5 have already been allocated

Trains are competitive only if they travel on level ground and the only way to do so where there are mountains is to build “base tunnels”. For this reason, seven base tunnels are being built in the Alpine range. In addition to the Mont Cenis, they are: the Lötschberg (opened in 2007), the Gotthard (opened to traffic in 2016) and the Ceneri (opened in 2020) in Switzerland; the Semmering (planned opening in 2027) and the Koralm (planned opening in 2026) in Austria; and the Brenner (planned opening in 2032) between Austria and Italy.

The trade between Italy and France is worth over EUR 85 billion (2019 data). Freight traffic is around 43 million tonnes a year. About three million lorries cross the border to transport goods. 92% of this flow travels by road and only 8% by rail, due to the lack of competitiveness of the latter.

The current situation generates a strong level of pollution, since three million lorries travel between France and Italy. The new railway line will allow the transfer of 1 million lorries from the road to the railway, with an annual saving of greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those produced by a city of 300,000 inhabitants. The train is the most environmentally-friendly means of mass transport available.

The Lyon-Turin line is a mixed freight/passenger railway line, connecting Italy to the European TEN-T rail transport network currently under construction for a total of 17,500 km of tracks. From Turin, it will be possible to reach Paris in 4 hours (today it takes about 6); the time to get to Lyon will be halved.

The construction of the cross-border line involves the connection to the existing lines starting from the new international stations of Susa and Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. Together with the representatives of the institutions, TELT is studying the integration with the local train services, taking into account the opportunity to support the economic and tourist activities of the territory also by means of the railway.

60% of the materials extracted during the excavations will be reused as a granulate for the production of concrete, or as a filling material. The remaining 40% will be used for landscape redevelopment projects in areas adjacent to the construction sites, in order to minimise the transportation of the material and therefore emissions.

For the first time in Europe, the Italy-France intergovernmental commission has approved the application of a trans-national anti-mafia regulation. To work at the Turin-Lyon construction site, companies must be registered on a “white list” to which they are added following a series of checks on their activities. In addition, three independent control bodies monitor TELT’s activities in its role as responsible for carrying out the work.

The procedures that will assign the works are organised in 81 tenders based on 4 categories, to encourage the participation of small and medium enterprises (up to 5 million euros, between 5 and 50 million euros, between 50 and 500 million and between 500 million and 1.3 billion euros). On the basis of the statistical surveys carried out during the work for the exploratory tunnels of Chiomonte and Saint-Martin-La-Porte, it is estimated that, between contracts and subcontracts, the project will involve approximately 20,000 companies for contracts of all kinds: from minor ones to the most important works.

pour des contrats de tout genre : des petits contrats aux marchés les plus importants.

Already today, almost 800 people are at work, of whom about 530 are employed in the construction sites and 250 in service and engineering companies. At full capacity, the construction of the infrastructure will provide employment for 4,000 direct workers and as many again in associated industries. At present, for the work already completed, over 49.5% of the professionals employed came from the local area.

Le « Pacte pour le territoire » en Italie et la Démarche Grand Chantier en France prévoient un programme d’investissements publics ayant pour objectif de faire des chantiers de la ligne Lyon-Turin un moteur de développement pour l’économie locale. De plus, aucune base-vie n’est prévue pour le personnel impliqué dans les travaux, de façon à générer des retombées positives pour l’économie des territoires où sont installés les chantiers. L’ouvrage a l’effet d’un multiplicateur économique : 1 euro dépensé entraîne une contribution au PIB national de 3,77 euros ((Analyses Gruppo Clas – 2018).

The TEN-T network (the acronym TEN-T stands for Trans-European Networks – Transport) is a set of integrated transport infrastructures designed to support the single market, guarantee the free movement of freight and people and to strengthen the growth, employment and competitiveness of the European Union.

The cost of the cross-border section is 11.1 billion euros (in 2012 currency), as certified by a third party. Italy contributes 35% and France about 25%, while the European Union provides 40% of the funds.

In order to keep the certified cost up to date with annual price variations, the States have created an index for the project cost trend detailed in the Additional Protocol of 2016. This indicator is composed of multiple variables – taken from INSEE for France, ISTAT for Italy and Eurostat – which constitute the inflation basket for the project. To monitor this trend, TELT has created a computer program that scans the INSEE and ISTAT websites in both countries and Eurostat daily and updates the different variables.